Pa. High Court Won't Let GOP Pols In On Fracking Law Fight

By Dan Packel

Law360, Philadelphia (January 21, 2014, 5:41 PM ET) -- The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to overturn a nearly two-year-old order preventing two Republican leaders from intervening in a lower-court fight over the state’s landmark statute governing natural gas development, a month after it declared key parts of the law unconstitutional.

The justices determined that the petition by Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Cameron/Elk/Jefferson, and House Speaker Sam Smith, R-Jefferson/Indiana/Armstrong, failed to demonstrate their standing in the case, which will likely return to the Commonwealth Court. The lower court had denied the leaders’...